The surpluses and shortages in

business-to-business marketing theory

and research
Jagdish N. Sheth
Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and
Arun Sharma
School of Business, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA

Abstract
Purpose – Business-to-business marketing has come of age in the last three decades and research in this area has been extensive and impressive. This
paper examines the extant body of business-to-business marketing research and identifies surpluses and shortages with the goal of stimulating future
research.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper focuses on two questions regarding future business-to business marketing. First, what has been the
focus of understanding in business-to-business marketing theory and what should be its future focus? Second, what has been the purpose or objective
to study business-to-business marketing and what should be the future objective for research?
Findings – It is found that research in business-to-business marketing is fundamentally changing and will continue to change. The paper identifies
areas of business-to-business marketing research that have received surplus attention and areas that require additional attention.
Practical implications – The paper provides guidelines for future exploration of the business-to-business research domain.
Originality/value – The paper is analogous to the widely cited paper by Sheth (1979) that reviewed the state of consumer behavior research and
identified areas that had been unexplored or under-explored, and in the process provided an impetus for new research in consumer behavor.

Keywords Business-to-business marketing, Research, Marketing theory

Paper type Research paper

Introduction business-to-business marketing expands, it is imperative that a

The discipline of business-to-business marketing has come of
age in the last three decades. Three major academic journals
are dedicated to business-to-business marketing (Journal of
Business & Industrial Marketing, Industrial Marketing
Management, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing) and
several other journals are dedicated to sub-areas such as
personal selling and sales management (e.g. Journal of Personal
Selling and Sales Management). There are also numerous
books in this area, as indicated by a simple search of
Amazon.com that revealed over 500 books with some manner
of business-to-business marketing content. Finally, there are a
large number of general and industry-specific business-to-
business marketing magazines. Reid and Plank (2000) found
both extensive (2,194 articles between 1978 and 1997) and
excellent research in these publications.
Business-to-business marketing as a discipline has realized
spectacular growth by borrowing concepts from the
behavioral and quantitative sciences, and by broadening its
horizons from traditional industrial product marketing to
marketing of business services. As the research domain of
periodic re-examination of the discipline is conducted
(Spekman, 2000) to identify surpluses and shortages in
research. Accordingly, the objective of this conceptual paper is
to identify neglected or under-researched areas so that we can
advance the discipline of business-to-business marketing.
Nearly three decades ago, Sheth (1979) published a widely
accepted paper on surpluses and shortages in consumer
behavior that led to research in many new aspects of
consumer behavior, such as excessive consumption and
emotionally driven behaviors. We find this approach very
useful in examining the field of business-to-business
marketing.
The paper is divided into four sections. The first section
reviews the extant literature in business-to-business
marketing. The second section identifies areas that have
been the focus of understanding in business-to-business
marketing theory and suggests areas that should be the future
focus. The third section examines the purpose of research in
business-to-business marketing and identifies the future
motivation for continued interest in this area. The final
section summarizes the paper.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0885-8624.htm
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
21/7 (2006) 422– 427
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885-8624]
[DOI 10.1108/08858620610708902]
Extant research in business-to-business
marketing
Danneels and Lilien (1998) highlight the paradox that,
although the dollar value of business-to-business transactions
is double that of consumer transactions (Slater, 1999), the
bulk of research and teaching in marketing focuses on

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 B2B marketing theory and research Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
Jagdish N. Sheth and Arun Sharma Volume 21 · Number 7 · 2006 · 422 –427

consumer markets. This concern is not new. Webster (1978) Plank’s (2000) study to evaluate the state of business-to-
also stated that: business marketing research.
With well over half of America’s economic activity accounted by industrial In order to facilitate our analysis, we have reduced the
marketing, as distinct from the sale of products and services to consumers, it number of areas listed by Reid and Plank (2000) into a more
has been remarkable how little attention, relatively, industrial marketing has
compact list in Table II, based on our own knowledge as well
received in the professional literature and in academic research.
as the wisdom of our colleagues. For example, the
Furthermore, until the early 1970s business-to-business “Organization buying/buyer seller relationships” category
marketing was primarily practice-oriented, with relatively includes articles that address organizational buying and
less academic interest. For example, there were more journals vendor-customer negotiations and relationships. The
specializing in the practice of business buying behavior than in category of “Personal selling and sales management”
includes articles that address issues of personal selling, sales
consumer behavior (Sheth, 1977). One of the reasons for the
training, sales motivation and compensation, and general
low level of academic attention to business-to-business
sales management. Similarly, the category of “Product
marketing is the complexity of studying the business buying
management/new product development” includes articles
behavior. The business buying process normally involves
that address new product development and product
many participants who influence the buying decision
management. As expected, articles on organizational buying
differently. Studies in this area require organizational
and buyer-seller relationships are most frequently addressed
cooperation and intimate knowledge of how the organization
and constitute about a fifth of the research focus in this area.
works, which are not easily attained. We believe this is due to the publication of comprehensive
Fortunately, the research in business-to-business marketing
models of business buying behavior developed by Webster and
since Webster’s call to action has been extensive and
Wind (1972), and by Sheth (1973). While Sheth (1973)
impressive. As mentioned before, Reid and Plank (2000) highlighted the effect of individuals in the buying process,
examined over 2,194 articles that were published on business- Webster and Wind (1972) emphasized the role of the
to-business marketing research between 1978 and 1997. They organization and its environment. Towards the late 1980s
provide excellent summary of the literature, and their and early 1990s, research began to highlight the importance
summary is presented in Table I. We will use Reid and of developing relationships for effective marketing, especially
in the business-to-business context. This led to numerous
Table I Literature summary (1978-1997) academic publications on testing these conceptual frameworks
or in enhancing conceptual foundations. The creation of the
Percentage
Center for Relationship Marketing at Emory University
Topic n of total brought the issue of customer relationship management into
Advertising 58 1.7 the mainstream. Scholarly opinion seemed to converge on a
Sales promotion 50 1.4 pattern of paradigm shift from a transaction-based marketing
Public relations 9 ,1 perspective to a relationship marketing perspective. At the
Promotion 65 1.9 same time, the IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing)
Marketing research 110 3.2 Group in Europe developed a research focus of buyer-seller
Forecasting 38 1.1 relationships in business markets.
New product management and development 225 7.3 The second area of research focus has been personal selling
Personal selling 242 7.0 and sales management. This also constitutes about a fifth of
Sales training 35 1.0
all of the articles published in the business-to-business
Sales motivation and compensation 100 2.9
General sales management 296 8.5 Table II Literature summary by areas (1978-1997)
Purchasing management 253 7.3
Area Number Percentage
Computers in business marketing 29 ,1
Decision support and management science 58 1.7 Organization buying/buyer-seller
Organizational buying behavior 448 12.9 relationships 716 21.49
Product management 89 2.6 Personal selling and sales management 673 20.20
Pricing 73 2.1 Product management/new product
Business services marketing 82 2.4 development 344 10.32
Channel management and administration 135 3.9 Marketing planning and strategy 332 9.96
Logistics and physical distribution 22 ,1 Purchasing management 253 7.59
International business marketing 125 3.6 Communication 182 5.46
Marketing to governments 11 ,1 Channels and supply chain management 157 4.71
Market segmentation 64 1.9 Segmentation and segments 157 4.71
Market planning and strategy 332 9.6 Marketing research and forecasting 148 4.44
Marketing and other functions 67 1.9 International 125 3.75
Ethics in business marketing 18 ,1 Computers/decision support 87 2.61
Buyer-seller relationships 268 7.7 Marketing’s role (functional, ethical) 85 2.55
Other 141 4.0 Pricing 73 2.19

Source: Reid and Plank (2000) Source: based on Reid and Plank (2000)

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 B2B marketing theory and research
Jagdish N. Sheth and Arun Sharma
marketing journals. We believe this has been due to three
reasons. First, several academic researchers came with sales
experience and had a managerial affinity. Second, access to
salespeople and sales management data was easier due to the
pervasive nature of sales departments. Third, research was
predominantly based on a single unit of analysis (e.g.
salesperson, sales manager) in comparison to buyer-seller
relationships that require dyadic and multiple level data
collection.
The third largest area of research addresses product
management and new product development and it
constitutes about 10 percent of the research focus. Product
management has been less frequently studied when compared
to new product development. The research has examined the
development of products, product lines, and product life cycle
management. In addition, there have been discussions on
organizational adoption and organizational choice frameworks
specifically relevant to business marketing firms.
The next area of focus has been marketing planning and
strategy, which also constitutes about 10 percent of the
research focus. The majority of research in this area reflects
strategic choices that firms need to make. Although focused
toward business markets, the implications are relevant for all
firms.
Purchasing management is the next largest topic of
research, with about 8 percent of research focus. This
research has typically taken the perspective of the buying firm.
Research has examined organizational structures, the supply
management function, partnerships, supplier selection,
quality processes, and has detailed effective purchasing
processes.
Communication research (advertising, sales promotion,
and public relations) constitutes about 6 percent of the
research focus. Most of the research is empirical, examining
details of communication programs with no programmatic
basis (Reid and Plank, 2000). All other areas combined
constitute less than 5 percent of the research focus in
business-to-business marketing.
Examining shortages and surpluses
As mentioned earlier, we will use the example of Sheth
(1979), who undertook a similar endeavor to identify areas in
consumer behavior that were in shortage of research and
theory and those that were researched too much. A large
number of neglected areas identified in the article later
became mainstream consumer behavior research topics, such
as customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, consumerism and
consumer welfare, search behavior, math choice models,
and deviant consumption.
Our expectation is that this paper will generate a similar
shift in research focus from areas of business-to-business
marketing where we have a surplus of both conceptual and
empirical understanding and managerial objectives to those
that have been neglected.
Surpluses and shortages of focus in business-to-
business research and theory
The focus of research in business-to-business theory can be
classified by two dimensions. The first dimension is focus on
individual behavior versus organization behavior. Clearly,
there has been more research on organization behavior than
on individual behavior, although organizational culture,
structure, and processes affect individual decision-making,
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Volume 21 · Number 7 · 2006 · 422 –427
individual factors such as education background, age, and
gender can further aid an understanding business-to-business
marketing. The second dimension is use of decision-making
processes as opposed to non decision-making processes. Once
again, more research has been on decision-making processes.
Figure 1 provides the 2 £ 2 classification.
Surplus of focus: understanding organization behavior
based on decision-making framework
The first area we have identified as having a surplus of focus is
organizational buying behavior models. There has been
extensive research since the introduction of business buying
models by Webster and Wind (1972) and Sheth (1973). The
frameworks are well understood and form the underpinnings
of much of the work in the business-to-business marketing
arena. The second area of surplus is market planning and
strategy. As Table II demonstrates, about 10 percent of the
research focus in the business-to-business area is in marketing
planning and strategy. As stated earlier, most of the findings in
this area are relevant for most firms, not just in business-to-
business contexts. The third well-researched area in business-
to-business marketing is buyer-seller relationships. The
understanding in this area has been considerably enhanced
by the work of the IMP group in Europe as well as by research
on relationship marketing.
Need more: organization behavior using non-decision-
making framework
We identify three areas in business-to-business marketing that
should address organization behaviors in non-decision making
frameworks. The first area is the impact of organizational
culture on selling or buying behavior. Organizational culture
was first introduced to the marketing literature by Deshpande
and Webster (1989). While there has been some research
regarding organizational culture and business-to-business
markets, we need a lot more to fully understand, for
example, how an engineering-driven culture impacts
business-to-business marketing differently than a sales-
driven culture.
The second area that needs more attention is impact of
industry structures on business-to-business marketing. While
transaction cost analysis has been utilized in business-to-
business marketing (Rindfleisch and Heide, 1997), there is
still a lot of potential for additional research. Industry
structures have also been examined extensively in the
Figure 1 Surpluses and shortages of focus in business-to-business
theory
 B2B marketing theory and research
Jagdish N. Sheth and Arun Sharma
economics and strategy literature, but only a small amount of
this knowledge is applied in business-to-business marketing.
For example, what is the impact of consolidation of customer
industries such as telecommunications?
A third area of research is international influences in
business markets. As firms develop a more global orientation,
we need to research such issues as offshore outsourcing and
global account management. Another interesting area of
research is the effect of the rise of China and India on US
buyer-seller relationships.
Need more: decision making for individual behavior
We identify three areas that need more research on individual
decision making. The first area is organizational influence on
individual decision making. While there has been limited
research in this area (Walsh, 1995; Pillai and Sharma, 2003),
what we need to know is how governance policies and
processes impact individual decision making. Specifically, is
the budget and spending authority decentralized or
centralized? Is the procurement function organized globally
or locally?
The second area of research is schemas, cognition, and
persuasion knowledge. Schemas are knowledge structures that
individuals utilize to make decisions. These knowledge
structures allow individuals to assess cues and to manage
persuasion attempts (Friestad and Wright, 1994). While
knowledge structures have been extensively examined in
consumer behavior, they also need to be examined in the
business-to-business context. For example, an area of
research interest may be the effect of an individual’s
persuasion knowledge structures on the functioning of the
buying center. Similarly, how the style of the decision maker
(driver, expressive, analytic or amicable) impacts individual
decision marketing is another potential area of research.
Finally, more research is needed on the decision-making
process. Business-to-business marketing continues to regard
individual decision-making as a black box. In contrast,
research in consumer behavior has considerably enhanced
knowledge of individual decision-making processes. There is a
need to extend this kind of research to business-to-business
marketing. An example of research in this area is impact of the
type of message cues on product evaluation in the business-to-
business context.
Shortage: non-decision marketing for individual
behavior
As stated earlier, non-decision marketing processes and
heuristics used by individual decision makers are generally
regarded as irrational and unacceptable behavior in business-
to-business marketing. After all, business decisions are
supposed to be based on reason and there is presumed
accountability of managers to make the right decisions.
Unfortunately, research in this area is very limited.
Again we identify three areas that may fill this void. The
first area is impact of situational effects. In consumer
marketing, this topic has been extensively studied (e.g. Belk,
1974), specifically in the context of retail research. The
findings of this research reveal that situational effects impact
consumer behaviors to a large extent. For example, what is
the impact of rising interest rates on Capex decisions in an
organization, or impact of collapse of a company’s market
cap, as has happened with all the major airlines. The next area
of research is the effect of organizational roles in business-to-
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Volume 21 · Number 7 · 2006 · 422 –427
business marketing. For example, Sheth et al. (1999) identify
user, buyer, and payer as three distinct roles in an
organization.. While we have significant research on how
different people with specific role responsibilities in a buying
center make decisions (gatekeeper, user, buyer, decision
maker, etc.), we really don’t know how these roles are
impacted by such non-decision making processes as turf wars
and internal politics. Finally, similar to the roles that
organizational employees play, salespeople also play different
roles, such as consultant, facilitator, or trusted advisor.
Matching of roles to organizational situations and training for
those roles are areas that need additional research. For
example, an area of research interest is the effect of
compensation on different roles (hunters versus farmers).
Surpluses and shortages in the purpose of
business-to-business theory and research
The purpose of research in business-to-business theory and
research can be divided into two dimensions. The first
dimension is basis of knowledge – research that is theoretical
in nature versus research that is empirical in nature.
Historically, there has been more empirical research than
theoretical research. This may reflect the critical stage of
growth of the discipline. The second dimension is the type of
output – research that is managerial versus research that aids
discipline development. Similar to the first dimension, more
research has been for managerial output rather than for
enhancing the discipline. These two dimensions create a 2 £ 2
matrix as presented in Figure 2 and discussed next. As
previously stated, while a large number of areas could be
identified, we discuss only three for each cell in the matrix.
Surplus: empirical research for managerial benefit
We identify three areas in business-to-business marketing that
are empirically based and address managerial issues. The first
area and focus of considerable research interest is personal
selling and sales management. It constitutes about 20 percent
of the research focus in the business-to-business marketing
area (Table II), has a journal dedicated to it, and a large
number of books on the subject. The broader issues are well
understood and recent research has focused on more narrow
issues. The second area of considerable research is new
product development. It constitutes about 7 percent of
research published in the business-to-business marketing area
Figure 2 Surpluses and shortages in the purpose of business-to-
business theory and research
 B2B marketing theory and research
Jagdish N. Sheth and Arun Sharma
(Table I). Most of the research in the new product
development area has generated findings that are
generalizable to most firms, not specifically business-to-
business marketing firms. The final area of surplus is
company demographic research. For example, some studies
have examined the size of the firm and the size of the buying
center. Other research has examined the number of
employees in purchasing departments. There is considerable
research of this kind, but little additional insights are
provided.
Need more: theory-based empirical research
We identify three areas in business-to-business marketing that
may generate theory-based empirical research. The first is
organizational satisfaction. There is considerable research on
customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction in consumer markets and
some that addresses both consumer as well as business
markets (e.g. Gruca and Rego, 2005; Morgan et al., 2005).
However, the understanding of customer satisfaction/
dissatisfaction in business-to-business marketing is still
limited. As Reinartz and Kumar (2000) point out, some of
the fundamental axioms – such as a strong positive customer
lifetime-profitability relationship, may not be valid in
business-to-business markets.
The second area that can enhance theory-based empirical
research is international and cross-cultural effects on
business-to-business marketing. The discipline needs to
examine this area because business organizations are
becoming more international and cross-cultural due to
globalization, and their customers and employees have
increasingly varied cultural backgrounds. There is a need to
examine the antecedents and consequences of international
and cross-cultural shifts in business-to-business markets. For
example, do cross-cultural buying centers make more optimal
decisions or do cross-cultural sales teams do a better job of
selling to global accounts?
A third area of additional research is relational formation,
maintenance, and even dissolution. For example, Wilson
(1995) suggests that the majority of deep relationships such as
alliances fail, and he proposes a model of buyer-seller
relationships that will result in structural and social bonding
(stickiness). However, there is no empirical study to validate
this interesting perspective.
Need more: managerial use of well-accepted marketing
concepts
We identify three areas in business-to-business marketing that
address managerial use of well-researched marketing
concepts. The first area is the effect of brand reputation on
business-to-business sales. There is considerable research on
brand equity; however, the majority of this research is on
consumer goods. As firms invest heavily in corporate brands,
there is a need to better understand brand effects in business-
to-business marketing situations. For example, does corporate
reputation enhance the effectiveness as well as efficiency of
the sales organization?
The second area is effect of advertising in business-to-
business markets. Business-to-business marketers such as
IBM and Accenture spend considerable resources on
advertising their services in both consumer and business
media. However, the efficacy of this expenditure has not been
examined. Reid and Plank (2000) report that the majority of
research in advertising deals with the executional aspects of
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Volume 21 · Number 7 · 2006 · 422 –427
advertising. However, it would be desirable to test whether
advertising works as a reinforcement of the purchase decision.
Thirdly, as companies utilize alternative channels to reach
customers, we need to study their relative efficiency and
effectiveness in generating sales. For example, is telemarketing
a good lead generator for the sales force or can it generate
sales on its own? Similarly, what is the effect of web-based
marketing on traditional channels, for example in the airline
and travel industry? Finally, internal versus external channels
of sales and distribution are issues of strategic as well as
financial considerations.
Shortage: theoretical basis of knowledge and
disciplinary output
As stated earlier, the confluence of theoretical basis of
knowledge and disciplinary output is under-researched in
business-to-business markets. There seems to be an acute
shortage regarding the theoretical foundations of the
discipline. While there are several rich hypotheses (e.g.
perceived risk, buyer attitudes) and some good comprehensive
theories in business-to-business behavior, most of them are
developed for the managerial perspective. There is a need for
a discipline-oriented theoretical foundation. The first area of
research is to develop commonly agreed upon and
scientifically validated laws of business-to-business markets.
For example, if 20 percent of customers generate 80 percent
of revenue (20/80 ratio), what is the degree of cross-subsidy
across accounts? A second area of research is the role of
segmentation and profitability analysis in those industries
where the company serves consumers, small businesses and
large enterprises. Do large customers subsidize the consumer
segment? A third area of research is “need versus want”
motivation. General business-to-business markets are need-
based. We know very little about the company’s wants and
desires and how they get institutionalized differently in
different organizations.
Conclusion
In this paper we have attempted to review the extant research
in business-to-business marketing and have suggested
directions for future research. The growth of research in this
area was slow until the 1980s, as Haass (1986) states:
Industrial marketing appears to have come of age in the 1980s. After years of
languishing in the background of consumer marketing, there are signs that
industrial marketing is taking its rightful place.
The research in business-to-business marketing has been
impressive since then. New areas have been explored in the
business-to-business marketing area. We further aid this
processes by identifying surpluses and shortages in business-
to-business marketing research. Our view is that we have
enough research utilizing decision-making frameworks to
understand how organizations make buying decisions as well
as how we can sell to them. What we need to research is how
individuals in an organization make buying decisions, and
how to sell to a person and make him or her an advocate or
champion for the company. Similarly, we have enough
research on managerial issues utilizing empirical research
methods. What we need is programmatic research utilizing
large databases similar to PIMS or Computstat.
The purpose of identifying new areas of research is to
encourage future researchers to appreciate the exciting
 B2B marketing theory and research
Jagdish N. Sheth and Arun Sharma
opportunities offered by business-to-business marketing for
academic research.
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Inkpen, A.C. (2001), “Managing balance in career and life:
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Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 76-81.
Lichtenthal, J.D. (2005), “Curriculum issues”, AMA/ISBM
B2B PhD Summer Camp, San Francisco, CA, July 28-29.
About the authors
Jagdish N. Sheth is Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of
Marketing at the Goizueta Business School at Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Arun Sharma is Professor of Marketing at the University of
Miami, School of Business, Coral Gables, Florida, USA.
Arun Sharma is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: asharma@miami.edu
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.